BY GEORGE DICKIE
As February turned to March, there was no NBA player
hotter than Ja Morant. Or as legendary sportscaster Dan
Patrick might put it, he's "en fuego."
Indeed, in their third year point guard, the Memphis
Grizzlies have a budding star who has taken his game to
another level as his team jockeys for one of the top playoff
seeds in the West.
That was never more evident than in the Grizzlies' Feb. 28
game against the San Antonio Spurs, when the 2020 Rookie
of the Year scored a career- and franchise-record 52 points
in leading the Grizz to a 118-105 home victory. This came
just two nights after he set the previous mark with 46 against
the Chicago Bulls. With those efforts, Morant also took
ownership of the three highest single-game scoring outputs in
team history and five of the top seven.
His highlight reel performances have become legendary –
gravity-defying dunks, 360 layups in traffic, buzzer beaters
from the baseline – but his numbers are equally impressive.
The most obvious is his career-
high 27.6 points per game
(seventh in the league, up from
19.1 in 2020-21) to go with 6.6
assists, 5.9 rebounds and 1.2 steals,
all stats that helped him earn his
first All-Star appearance as a starter
this season.
Morant and the Grizzlies can
be seen in action Wednesday,
March 23, when they play host
to the struggling Brooklyn Nets
in the opening game of an ESPN
doubleheader.
Morant catches fi re as
Grizzlies drive for postseason
• FOR THE WEEK OF MARCH 21 - 27, 2022 •
"HALO" premieres
Thursday on Paramount+.
YOUR WEEKLY GUIDE TO TV ENTERTAINMENT
